Each and every bride wants to look her stunning best on her wedding day be it in terms of hairstyle, makeup or attire. Without an ounce of doubt, the brides in our part of the world are the most beautiful and prettiest. Do not rely entirely on makeup to look beautiful instead on getting good skin, inside out. Make it a point to eat plenty of fresh fruits and veggies, munch on some nuts each day and increase your intake of fluids at least 1 month or two prior to your wedding date in order to get naturally healthy and plump skin. Also, try to stay calm and positive as far as possible as a good state of mind, reflects on your skin. Go for regular face clean up sessions and monthly face and body massages at your salon. You may also opt for a pre bridal package. You would need to be very particular about your skin care and hair care regimen.
Asian Bridal Makeup :
The brides out here in India and Pakistan dress up in the most exclusive and elaborate Lehengas/ shararas /Sarees or other ethnic wear.
Traditionally, in India, liquid Bindis were used to draw elaborate patterns on the bride’s forehead usually, in Red and White colours. Now, this practice has been stopped in most parts of India is done only for Bong bridal makeup. Since, a ghunghat or veil is almost mandatory for brides in India, make sure your forehead and eyebrows are threaded and there are no stray hairs. It is best to go for a threading session 7 to 8 days before your D day to prevent last-minute panic.
Similarly, the Korean and Malaysian brides have such flawless, spotless complexions, they actually do not require any heavy makeup all they need is a little colour on their lips and cheeks and they are pretty much good to go.
Let us get into the details of the Asian Bridal Makeup.
Traditional Indian Bridal Makeup:
There has been a lot of change in bridal makeup trends. A few years back, bridal makeup was very loud and screaming for attention with the eyes, lips and cheeks all highlighted at once!! Most of the brides ended up looking like painted dolls. Thankfully, there has been a pleasant improvement in the way Bridal makeup is done now. Much thanks to an increase in number of professional makeup artists who have a keen sense of balance and are able to color coordinate the makeup well with the bride’s attire and can also judge wisely about which feature to highlight and accentuate and which one needs to be muted or toned down.
One of the latest trends in Indian Bridal makeup is airbrush makeup which is done with the help of a spray gun and special makeup products for a very sheer and natural finish as opposed to conventional makeup done with regular tools and products. However, if you are going for airbrush makeup, do make sure that your makeup artist has a really practiced hand and has done the bridal makeup for quite a few clients.
Now days, Indian bridal makeup focuses at giving the Bride’s facial skin a clean, spotless and poreless appearance. Too much coverage with an aim to alter or whiten the bride’s natural complexion is not the in thing, now a day as it gives a fake, mask like appearance. Instead, sheer to medium coverage with a goal to give a smooth, natural and radiant looking appearance is preferred.
The steps for each bridal makeup are pretty much the same. One has to start with cleansing the skin with a mild, soap-free cleanser followed by toning. Moisturizing comes next in line, followed by putting on a makeup primer on the skin. A makeup primer is something which ought not to be skipped. In fact, it happens to be absolute must for brides as they cannot risk a makeup meltdown and the embarrassment that follows, on their D day. A quality makeup primer would help the makeup stay on better and for longer. It also gives a smoother base for your foundation and concealer to blend in perfectly.
The shade of foundation that matches the best with the bride’s complexion should be chosen. The shade of foundation can be tested on forehead or jaw line under the daylight or at least the kind of lighting present at the wedding venue. A couple of shades can be mixed together to get the perfect shade. In summers, the products used should be water/sweat proof.
The regions around lips and eyes often show patches of discoloration/ darkness. These need to be concealed with a mousse, pen or stick concealer. Pat the concealer into the skin. Try to keep the shade of concealer very close to that of the foundation. For this, using the base makeup products from a single brand helps as closely matching shades are easily available.
The foundation is applied onto facial and neck area using a foundation brush or finger tips. The foundation is not to be wiped across the face but patted or tapped into the skin. After you are done, merge in the areas of patchiness to get rid of any harsh lines.
A bronzer can be used to do any required facial contouring to accentuate the cheek bones, define the shape of face or to make the nose appear more slender. Blend really well as the bronzer should just appear as a faint shadow and nothing more. There should be no patchiness or harsh lines in the contoured areas.
Use a dusting powder to set the base makeup. The base makeup steps remain the same regardless of the fact that the bride is Indian or Korean or Malaysian.
Next, you need to tame your brows using a clean mascara wand and then fill in your brows for a nice, defined arch.
Eye shadows with a metallic sheen usually look great on Indian brides. Shades like Bronze and Copper do the trick for almost anybody. A smokey eye done with a blend of darker and lighter shades is also quite common a trend. Before applying any eye shadow, do apply a primer.
In Indian bridal look, eyes are often defined well and highlighted by means of kajal and eye liners. The eye liners can be used for both upper and lower eyelids if, your eyes are big to make them look more shapely and almond shaped. You can further define your eyes by using a technique called tight lining which involves lining your water line and inner aspect of upper lid with a Dark coloured eye liner. If, on the other hand, your eyes are small, you should skip lining your lower lid in Black and instead use a Beige or Whitish liner on your waterline and a light coloured eye shadow on the inner corner of your eyes to create that popping effect.
No eye make-up is complete without thick, voluminous eye lashes. Do apply at least 2 to 3 coats of mascara on your eye lashes. Place the mascara brush angled horizontally for upper eye lashes and deposit maximum of mascara at the base to create an illusion of dense lashes. For your lower lashes, hold the brush vertically for a more natural appearance. Choose waterproof mascara, only.
Do the lips in a colour that does not exactly match or sharply contrasts with your Lehenga/ outfit. Choose a balanced shade that does not look too load with your eye make-up and goes well with your attire, too.
Blush ons are another must as without a little colour on the apples of your cheeks, your face will look tired. Pick a fresh Pink, Peach or Coral, if you are fair to medium skin toned. If you are on the duskier side, take your pick from Plum or deep Terracota.
Pakistani Bridal Makeup:
The basics of makeup are more or less the same. It is the kind of jewellery and accessories that makes the all difference. However, one difference that I can pin point is that they us a lot of Black in their eye makeup for a rather dramatic appearance.
South Asian Bridal Makeup:
The emphasis in these bridal looks is on creating a radiant, dewy, flawless complexion. You would rarely find brides in this part of the world wearing matte make up. A sheer coverage base, a blush in dewy finish and healthy, glossy lips in Nude, Pink and Coral shades is what South Asian bridal makeup is all about.
Asian Bridal makeup -Christian brides :
Christian brides in Asia prefer subtle glowy makeup, which consists of a Dewy full to medium finish Foundation , along with a natural colored blush to highlight th e cheeks. Lips are usually kept simple with rosy pink shades but a few brides do go the separate ways and opt for brighter pinks and reds. Eyes are usually kept simple but if you’re wanting a more dramatic look – opt for a heavy eyeliner and shadow look. Keep the shadow close to natural or pink tones , you may use metallic shades but make the look subtle by pairing a heavy eye makeup with natural or subtle lips.
So, was the entire makeup look much less complicated than you expected it to be? Do not stress too much and be happy and cheerful from within to look your prettiest on your D-day. As a word of caution, do go for an appointment with your makeup artist a day or two prior to your wedding to get a trial makeup to finalize the shades that look the best on you as you cannot afford to have hit and trials on the D-day.
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